Handmade Decorations for a Birthday Party

I love the idea of creating a handmade home. So when it was time to celebrate Martin’s birthday while we were in Germany, I knew I had to incorporate some sort of handmade decor into our celebration. I guess I feel like handmade is also heart-made, and you all know what a sucker I am for following your heart!

It was the perfect little touch that could be so fun to make with kids.

This year, I wanted to create something a little more sustainable that we could use for years and years of birthday parties.

So while Martin was out for the day, I pulled out my sewing machine and bits of fabric, and placed them on our dining table. I didn’t follow a pattern. As my mom says, “Katie just starts sewing!” Well I think about it first and look at a few pictures. After a few hours, I had this:

I shooed Martin into the bedroom while I strung them across our apartment in Berlin. You may remember seeing that bunting hanging up in several photos of our house like this one:

Just for fun, I hung a shorter one above my desk, too. And for now – our bunting has become a permanent fixture in our apartment (unless the folks there take it down!). I guess I like to think of it as becoming our “welcome home!” banner when we get back to Germany.

If you’d like to make fabric bunting of your own, try googling “how to make fabric bunting” for a slew of styles and tips. It’s certainly an easy sewing project or no-sew project.

How did your family used to make birthdays special when you were young? Any strings of streamers or balloons? How about a heavily-used Happy Birthday! sign or special dinners and delicious cake? And what do you do to make the birthday boy or girl feel magical?

7 lovely thoughts on “Handmade Decorations for a Birthday Party”

What a neat idea! I had never heard of buntings. Growing up, my parents used to take just the birthday kid out to dinner on their birthday. Then we’d come home and eat our homemade cake as a family. It was a nice time to spend one on one time with Mom and Dad.

I love both your buntings! That looks like a LOT of little triangle flags on the sewn version. :) I’ve thought about making some for my tables at craft shows… I might actually get around to it sometime!

A couple of years ago I did a birthday banner for our daughter out of felt. It was a lot of fun and we now use it every year at her birthday. I love adding personal touches to celebrations. In fact I think I might start making banners for other celebrations as well. Maybe a “Welcome Fall” banner is next!

I love fabric bunting. I’m not sure my husband is quite on board with it yet, but I’ll give it a whirl next spring and see what he thinks. I like to make ‘bunting’ from cards we get – birthday cards and Christmas cards. I tape the cards to a long string of cotton yarn and hang it wherever it will fit. It’s really fun!

very cute. growing up the birthday child got to pick where or what they wanted for dinner and what type of cake they wanted. my mpm would also collect any birthday cards that came in the mail before our actual day so we couldn’t open them early. most of the time we didn’t know any had come until she handed us the stack after dinner.

Growing up, our birthday traditions were to bring breakfast to the birthday boy or girl, along with a candle to blow out on the breakfast tray, presents, and heartily sung renditions of “Happy Birthday” and “Boom, Boom, Ain’t it Great to be Crazy.” Initially when we were little it was Dunkin’ Donuts (that would work in the USA or Berlin) and orange juice, but as we grew older and perhaps became a bit wiser about healthy foods, it morphed into homemade low-fat and/or high fiber muffins and hot tea or coffee. Lots of great memories there.